04/02/2009 - Rewrite weakens DCS bill, critics say (Indianapolis Star)
Rewrite weakens DCS bill, critics say
By Tim Evans
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The state Senate will vote on a bill to create an ombudsman for the Department of Child Services, but family rights advocates assailed the legislation as a watered-down compromise that falls far short of providing real oversight of the agency.
Those advocates have pushed for an independent ombudsman and were supportive of a version of the bill that previously passed 98-0 in the House.
But they were angered Wednesday when the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a revised bill to the full Senate -- a bill rewritten primarily by DCS officials.
Although the legislation remains alive, those changes significantly reduce the reach of the ombudsman, complained Dawn Robertson, spokeswoman for the family rights group HonkForKids.com.
The most troubling change, she said, is that it appears not to allow the ombudsman to investigate complaints about DCS's interaction with parents and other family members of children involved with the state agency.
"Most of the time, the major issues that arise -- and that need to be resolved -- are between the families and DCS," Robertson said. "This bill, as it is now, would not provide any help for families."
Robertson also was critical of the committee for allowing DCS officials to craft many of the changes, yet refusing to accept any comment from the public before voting on the revised version of the bill passed by the House in February.
"To allow DCS to put in its two cents, basically rewriting the bill, and then not allow the public any opportunity to comment on those changes before the vote is just unacceptable," she said.
The original bill was introduced in the wake of a series of Indianapolis Star stories that called into question whether DCS had done enough to prevent the deaths of TaJanay Bailey and Destiny Linden, two Indianapolis girls under the agency's supervision. But because of the confidential nature of the in-house investigations, some key details never were revealed.
More than a dozen supporters of the House version of the bill attended the hearing, including several hoping to speak against the committee's proposed amendment.
Committee Chairman Richard Bray, R-Martinsville, did not return a call from The Star seeking an explanation for not allowing public comment.
Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, the bill's author, called the amended version "an acceptable compromise" -- at least for now.
Brown said he does not agree with all the changes, either.
"This keeps it moving," he said. "The important thing is to get it out of the Senate."
Sen. Jean Leising, R-Oldenburg, agreed.
"The changes had to happen to keep the bill moving," she said. "It would not have made it out of the committee as it was (originally) written."
Just what the committee members did not like about the original version of the bill is not clear.
Sen. Travis Holdman, R-Markle, a member of a subcommittee that worked with DCS to revise the bill, could not articulate any specific issues that prompted them to seek a rewrite.
"I'm not sure," Holdman said, "who raised all the issues with the House version."
He said DCS took the lead in drafting the amendment approved by the Senate committee.
John P. Ryan, DCS chief of staff, agreed that the amended legislation is "a compromise" but said the agency is fully supportive of the new version.
Leising and Brown said there will be an opportunity to address changes if the legislation is approved by the full Senate. Leising said she is particularly concerned that the bill, as it is now written, would not allow the ombudsman to look into complaints by foster parents and other agencies that deal with DCS.
If the Senate approves the bill, it would go to a conference committee, where two Republicans and two Democrats would attempt to hammer out differences between the versions.
Brown said he would try during that process to address some of the changes that bother him and others, including the section that appears to limit the ombudsman to investigating only those complaints related to children involved with DCS.
About 30 other states have some sort of ombudsman program that deals with state or local child welfare programs. Indiana's proposal mirrors many others in that it would give the ombudsman the authority to examine confidential agency records, interview workers and review other circumstances of cases to determine whether the agency followed all laws, policies and procedures in the handling of cases.
DCS annually investigates about 20,000 families and removes about 7,000 children from their parents.
Indiana already has ombudsmen for at least six other state programs and agencies, including the Department of Correction, nursing home and other institutional care, mental health and public welfare services, and utility-related disputes.
